1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a snowmobile including a body, a steering ski suspended from a front portion of the body, and an engine-driven caterpillar unit suspended from a rear portion of the body and to a body structure for a stand-up snowmobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Snowmobiles of this type have been known, for example, from Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 4-331659, in which the driver rides the snowmobile on a floor in a standing position and controls the body of the snowmobile by posture movement.
A snowmobile disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 4-5188 is provided with a rear grip at the rear end of a floor. A snowmobile disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,568,787 is provided with stabilizing arms protruding outwardly from the opposite sides of a caterpillar unit with an intention to give antiroll stability to the snowmobile. A stand-up snowmobile is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,307,788.
Each of the vehicles described in the above documents requires many men for carrying, even in the case wherein the snowmobile includes a rear grip as in the vehicle disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 4-5188.
Although it is important to protect the body of a snowmobile from damage when the snowmobile is laid on one side thereof, known snowmobiles do not provide any means for protecting the body. The stabilizing arms of the snowmobile disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,568,787 are not effective in protecting the body from damage.
Each of snowmobiles disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Nos. 4-163359 and 4-51188 includes a steering ski suspended from a front portion of a body, a power-driven caterpillar unit suspended from a rear portion of the body, and a steering bar attached to a steering post supported for back-and-forth swinging motion on an upper portion of the steering shaft of the steering ski. The steering bar is operated by the rider standing on a floor extending over the caterpillar unit, and a body cover covers the body including an engine compartment formed in front of the floor so as to divide the engine compartment and a standing space for the rider on the floor.
A power system including an engine and accessories is installed in the engine compartment. When the power system installed in the engine compartment needs maintenance, the body cover must be removed. When removing the body cover, the handle post capable of back-and-forth swinging motion needs to be held in a position so that the body cover can be removed. This requires troublesome work.
The body cover which needs to be removed is subject to many restrictions on shape, position and such. A small degree of freedom in design is available for the body cover.